Steelseries Apex keyboard
UK price-£80(Amazon.co.uk)
US price-$70(Amazon.com)

SteelSeries is a Danish manufacturer of gaming peripherals and accessories, including headsets, keyboards, mice, and gaming surfaces. I recently purchased the "Apex Raw gaming keyboard" as a test unit. Its a membrane keyswitch keyboard, rather than mechanical switch, but this aside it has most of the key features youd expect of a gaming keyboard. The keys are backlit, it has a plethora of macro and multimedia keys and its key selling point is its low profile keys, which are designed for quick reflexes. The keyboard is made entirely of plastic and is definitely not a "premium" keyboard by any means but I can't deny that I do enjoy the aesthetics of this keyboard. The keyboard is large, mainly due to the large incorporated wrist rest which I found unnecessary and a waste of precious desk space. Although, if I'm honest, I felt like it was difficult to use this keyboard due to the size of it. The keyboard features 140 buttons, with the standard QWERTY selection joined by a numeric 10-key pad, 12 function buttons, six arrow keys, and dedicated media controls. The usual four arrow keys get the unusual addition of two diagonal keys which struck me as somewhat silly and pointless. The spacebar is even more ridiculous, measuring over an inch wide, more than twice the width of a standard spacebar. The spacebar is absolutely unnecessarily massive. There are 22 macro keys on this keyboard which is more than enough for myself, personally and I can't see anyone needing more than that. On the far right of the keyboard are dedicated media controls, which offer standard media commands (Volume control, pause/play, forward and back) without the need to fumble with a function key. Speaking of functions, SteelSeries has added a few more unique features for gamers, such as the ability to disable the Windows key with a simple keystroke. There's also targeted anti-ghosting on the keyboard regions most used in-game (the arrow keys and the WASD and surrounding keys). With this anti-ghosting, you can press up to six of these keys simultaneously without dropping a keystroke or locking the keyboard. Multicolor backlighting means that the keys look good under all sorts of lighting conditions, and the backlight color and brightness can be custom set. The keys are not merely backlit, but feature four independent lighting zoneswhich SteelSeries calls Action Zoneswith a full range of colors to choose from on each. The multiple zones make it easy to distinguish the keyboard proper from the many macro keys, function keys, and the numeric pad. Extra glowing accents are found on the outside edges of the keyboard, which creates a cool atmospheric effect when used in a dim or dark room. The Apex connects to your PC via a USB Y-cable, with a six-foot long braided cable providing enough length to snake around PC components and behind an out of the way tower. Though it takes up two USB ports, it also offers two USB pass-thru ports on the body of the keyboard. While the Apex is a plug and play keyboard, the optional SteelSeries Engine software lets you customize the keyboard in several ways. The two dozen macro buttons can easily be programmed to launch individual applications, trigger specific actions, or be customized with extensive macro commands. In SteelSeries Engine you can also adjust the color and brightness of the four independent lighting zones, picking from an extensive color palette and further adjusting the shade and brightness for each. To make it easier to differentiate different customization layers, each of the four layers can be customized individually. These sorts of touches make it much easier to use the four layer system, and the extensive macro sets allow you to set up a deep collection of commands that you can swap as you switch between different character classes or playing styles.


Pro's
RGB


Con's
Membrane switches
Unnecessarily large

Conclusion
In conclusion, this is a fantastic keyboard, both for aesthetics and performance. However, I wouldn't jump at the chance to buy one if I could again. The sheer size of the keyboard puts me off and not having mechanical switches is pathetic for gaming, in my opinion. For casual gamers, or those who don't type constantly and/or game, but would like an RGB keyboard, then this is perfect. I feel like it's cost is not justified though, as it is definitely not a premium grade keyboard by any means.




Pictures

Fractal Design Newton R3 600W Power Supply

Features
80 PLUS Platinum
Single 12V rail
CrossFireX Certified
Long-life ball-bearing fan
Modular cables
Japanese capacitors
Semi-passive fan

Pics


Pros
Its Built like a tank. You can tell its a very well-made product and that it's not cheap.
Under low load e.g. browsing the internet, at the desktop or even during light gaming, the fan doesn't spin up.
Looks gorgeous when the fan is facing down.
Packaging feels premium. Even the modular cable bag is very nice.
5-year warranty.

Cons
The braiding on the cables is poor. It's not a tight weave, which makes the cables very visible.
The-24 pin cable looks awful. The braid doesn't even go to the end.
It's expensive for what you're getting. There are cheaper and, arguably, better options out there.
The PCI-E cable is not modular although there is another one that you can add.

Other Reviews & testing


My experience & conclusion

Made it to the Home Page

Fractal Design Core 1000 [USB 2.0 15GBP]

[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]

Fractal Design is a Scandinavian company known in the PC business for their very clean deigns and good looking products. One of their best hits is the Fractal Design R4 case which has been widely used for many custom PC builds and is widely known to be an amazing case to work with.

The Fractal Core 1000 is for the budget user who don't want to spend out features which they wont use. With that in mind, lets see what the Core 1000 gives you.

Features

Motherboard Form Factor Micro ATX
Drive Bays External 2x 5.25 (includes adapter plate and cage for 3.5"-to-5.25")
Internal 2x 3.5"/2.5" OR 3x 2.5"
Cooling Front 1x 120mm intake
Rear 1x 92mm fan mount
Top -
Side 1x 120mm fan mount
Bottom -
Expansion Slots 4
I/O Port 2x USB 2.0, 1x Headphone, 1x Mic
Power Supply Size Standard ATX
Clearances HSF 150 mm
PSU 180 mm
GPU 8.5" / 210mm
Weight 9 lbs.
4.1 kg
Dimensions 6.9" x 14" x 16.5"
175mm x 355mm x 420mm
Special Features Silicone grommets for drive cage
Adapter plate and cage for mounting a 3.5" drive in a 5.25" bay

My pictures


Professional Pictures

The PC which I was going to be putting in there was for home use - Web browsing, office work and your general PC stuff. No gaming at all. With that in mind, here are my Pros and cons for the Core 1000

Pros
Very cheap case [USB 3.0 version costs 31GBP]
Rolled edges
Removable PCI brackets with Thumb screws
Dust filtered front fan
HDD noise reducers
Thumb screws

Cons
No cutout for CPU
No rear exhaust fan

My experience

When I brought the case, I wasn't expecting much since I only paid 15 GBP for it. When I cracked it open, I was pleasantly surprised to find that it has numerous features which you don't normally find on a case which is so cheap.

Lets start with the front. The front comes with 2x USB 2.0, 3.5MM headphone jack, 3.5MM microphone jack, power and reset buttons. Standard stuff here.

The front 120MM fan is nice and quiet. Its PWM to if you have a PWM controller on your motherboard, you can set it up the way you want it to be. The front is filtered so you hardly get any dust coming into your case.

The panels are a little bit too thin personally. However, they are much better than my old CIT case which could be easily bent with a hand. The Core 1000 panels feel like they wont bend if you actually put them under pressure and have a nice weight to them. However, they do still flex even without a window.

When installing the HDD and SSD, I was surprised that I found noise dampeners for the HDD. I was not expecting this case to provide this and is a nice touch since the HDD will be loud if it did not have the dampeners on there.

I was a bit disappointed to find that Fractal Design did not provide a rear fan for exhaust. However, that front fan does provide enough airflow that it is used as a passive exhaust and works well.

Overall, It was a pleasure working with the Fractal Design Core 1000. I felt like it was a much better built case that I was expecting and with nice features which you find on more expensive cases.

More reviews

Quick Fire TK Mechanical Gaming Keyboard Cherry MX Brown:80 GBP

[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]

Intro

I've been looking for a keyboard for quite some time now. I needed one with a white back-lit keyboard. This keyboard just popped out to be the best one out of the lot. At 80GBP, its not cheap but what do you expect from a mechanical keyboard?

Specs

Mechanical CHERRY MX switches with a lifespan of over 50 million key presses
Compact layout with integrated Num pad block
Full WHITE LED backlight, with 3 modes and 5 brightness levels
NKRO over USB for unlimited simultaneous keystrokes
Embedded steel plate for maximum stability and durability
Super Grip pads and Keyboard stand-offs with rubber feet
Windows keys can be disabled
7 easy-access multimedia shortcuts
Detachable braided USB cable and cable routing groves at the underside of the keyboard

Pros
Cherry MX
Strong white back light [adjustable]
Compact
Sturdy
ABS Grip
Easy to use & find media controlls

Cons
Not enough customizations
Heavy
gaming looking keys
Not all the keys are back lit[*]
Off color keys

[*] Im pretty sure there is a setting to change it so that the F12 key is lit up. I just cant find it.

personal thoughts & conclusion
I havn't been using they keyboard for that long admittedly, however, I have found a few flaws in the keyboard which I'd like to point out.

First off would be the instructions in the box. For someone who wants to crack this open and change the mode of the back-light, they will be dissapointed at first since the instruction manual does not tell you how to do this. I had to find out on a separate, different keyboard, YouTube how to do this. However, a bit of common sense can get you past this little issue that I had.

Next thing I noticed was that the caps Lock key was slightly off in colour. This happens since the LED is at the top of the cap so any of the larger keys will look a bit off as the light travels to the different part of the key. Not a big deal and can be kind of solved by turning up the LED brightness.

Talking about LED's, there isn't much customisation as I was first expecting. It does your basic full backlight, which I use all the time, breath effect and WSAD. However, that is all. Not a big issue with me but just disappointing that it doesn't come with more options.

After cracking this keyboard open, I was amazed at how heavy the unit was. Now, you can take this different ways. For example, if your going to use in a LAN event, its not the lightest keyboards around. However, if your just going to leave it on your desk, its absolutely fine. The weight is due to the steak plate that is in the middle of the keyboard. It makes typing feel very nice with no bowing in the keyboard when typing. Also, CM have managed to fit a keypad on a 10 keyless design. Its smaller than full size keyboard but keeps the 10 number keys. Perfect trade off in my opinion. This is better for posture since your mouse hand isn't too far away from your body and feels natural to use. Very nice CM!

After playing a good game on one of my favorite games, LoL, it became obvious why CM calls this a gaming keyboard. The ABS rubber grip that they put on the key caps really do help when you are sweating to the max; your fingers don't slip due to sweat or moisture. It also helps with your accuracy with type due to the fact that your fingers dont slip onto other keycaps by accident. Nice feature CM.

The media keys are a bonus but I don't see my self using them often. However, they are very easy to use and find.

So my overall opinion of this keyboard is very high. Its an amazing little bit of kit which personally, is just right for me. With its small form factor, solid build quality, back light and it being mechanical, I can see me and this keyboard going a long way.

Reviews
[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]
[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]
[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]

Side note: [not with the review]

NZXT H440
$105-$135
£80-£90

NZXT
NZXT is a computer component manufacturer based in Los Angeles, California. The company is best known for being a major manufacturer of computer cases and accessories for the low-end PC enthusiasts market, however they have been increasing their target in the high end market which is dominated by competitors such as Antec and Lian Li.



Case information


Experience


My conclusion




Sources
[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]
[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]

Tannoy Reveal 402 Studio Monitor Speakers - £127

[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]

Intro

The Tannoy Reveal 402 speakers are studio monitors which are supposed to be in a studio environment. With its small size compared to other studio monitors, its perfect for a home studio. However, with small size comes big power. The 402's are surprisingly powerful with a 4 custom high-efficiency LF driver & soft-dome Poke-Resistant tweeter.

Background information



Specifications



Personal views

Im going to say right from the start, Im not an audiophile. I dont know technical terms and I'm not going to pretend that I do because who would I be kidding.

Unboxing the 402's was a treat. I did not expect them to be so big and heavy. With a wooden construction and a massive magnet in both units, these do not feel cheap; and they wasn't. The look incredibly clean and grown up. I think I would go as far as they look understated. I absolutely love the look of these units. The fact that I am able to see the 4" driver makes me a little exited. They are very deep which I was not expecting so if you are looking to get these, make sure you have enough room on your desk or get stands for them.

The sound quality - OMG! That was my reaction for the first week when I got these units. The power that the 402's produce is incredible. When I was reading about them, I was thinking that 50w total power is not going to be enough. I've never been so wrong in my life. I have the speakers at 75% and am using Windows to control the power. It can happily sit at 6/8/10 on Windows volume and it will be loud enough that you can hear it a room away. These can defiantly be in a party situation but I wouldn't recommend it. Though they are very good, they lack the uber bass which is really needed for a proper party. However, for a few fiends that are over, these are ample fine.

Because they are studio monitors, they are built to sound the same no matter how high you crank the volume. And it works like a charm. I have had these at nearly full blast [75% on speakers, 80% on Windows] and the sound quality does not change from when its at half way; just a bit more of everything. Distortion is not a thing. Ive had speakers that distort when you crank them near there max. Not with these and thats without using a dedicated sound card / DAC!

I am thoroughly impressed with the sound quality of these units. With a bit of tweaking, you can change how they sound. For example, in Windows, I have the preset to party which cranks up the mids & lows a bit and dies down the highs. Not perfect but good if your in the party mood. Even when you set them to default, they sound amazing. Mind you, the speakers do come with an option on the back of them to cut out the hi's or lows. I have them so the lows are more powerful as by default, I felt that they where lacking but I have a feeling that was mainly due to coming from a extremely bass heavy speakers and headphones.

My sound test


Other reviews

---

[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]
[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]

Phanteks Enthoo Pro Review
$100-$110
£80-£90

[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]
*Image courtesy of HardwareCanucks*

---

Overview
Well start with the price, as you can see, its a fairly inexpensive case, but dont let that fool you. The Enthoo Pro offers features and support that you would expect in a premium case pushing £120+. The case is great for all sorts of hardware whether you want a nice quiet rig, or go balls to the wall with water cooling. Whatever floats your boat; you can do within this case. Before we get onto pros, cons and a final review, lets talk a little about specification of the case. The case is classed as a full tower; however I find it to be in between a mid tower and a full tower, which for me is perfect. The case is 235mm wide, 535mm high and 550mm deep which is more than enough for pretty much whatever you are planning, but then not stupidly big *coughs 900D* . The case comes with support for ATX, E-ATX, Micro ATX/Mini ITX (dont do that) and SSI EEB, with mine I find that an ATX motherboard looks far too small, width wise, in the case and I feel that an E-ATX motherboard would be a lot more suited to this and also look much better, but this does depend entirely on personal opinion. The front of the case is equipped with a 200mm fan as stock that pushes a decent amount of air while staying relatively quiet and the rear is fitted with a 140mm fan as an exhaust which comes connected to the PWM fan hub on the rear of the motherboard tray. The case has support for a 240mm rad up front, 140mm in the rear, 240mm on the bottom and up to a 420mm rad on the top, which is an insane amount for a sub £100 case. GPU wise, this case supports 347mm cards with drive bays and without drive bays, it would be hard to find a card that wouldnt fit as it has support for a whopping length of 472mm.

---

Pros
The Enthoo Pro is a spacious, roomy case that gives a lot of room for activities within, mainly a nice custom water loop. The case comes with a reservoir mount and a tool kit with everything that you need to be able to mount whatever hardware you decide to put within this chassis.
The airflow within this case is pretty good to; I noticed a good drop in temperatures across the board when I swapped from my old case to this one. Another pro to the Enthoo Pro is the build quality; I have seen worse build quality in high end Corsair cases that costs nearly double that of the Pro. Furthermore, the case is built with screws instead of being riveted together, which makes the case entirely customisable as the user can take certain sections out to mod them or do whatever they want with them. Another nice feature is the inclusion of a PSU cover which not only covers the PSU and hides some cables, but can also be used for a variety of things, for example SSDs could be placed upon it or in my case, I have a 1/24th scale Mini Cooper S on show in mine. Continuing with aesthetics and quality, the exterior of the case is stunning, with the frame made out of steel and the front/top of plastic made to look like brushed aluminium, it truly is a stunning case to look at. The front of the case has four 5.25 bays, however three are functional with the top one having a flap that exposes the front I/O apart from the power button, which is on the top. Accompanying the aesthetic of the case are the windows in the side panel, the main window is large enough to be able to see all of the hardware from most angles and the secondary one is a nice little feature which shows a Phanteks logo on the side of the HDD cover.

---

Cons
There are a few that I feel could be improved upon. Of course with it being a cheaper case there are a few things that could be improved, the main one (for me) are the windows, these get scratched with a micro-fibre cloth which although you cant see the scratches, there is that one angle where they all show and after wiping it down properly, they are everywhere.
Another gripe with the case is that the side panels will bend a lot while off the case, although not that big of a deal there is a lot of flex in the panels that could be avoided. This can be combated with sound dampening foam etc but should that really be the case? Yes it would cost more but I wouldnt mind spending a little bit more for some rigidity of the panels.
Furthermore, the paint on the case is rather thin and does chip quite easily (as I have found out) however it doesnt scratch as easily which is good.
Something else which I feel could be improved is rad clearance at the top of the case, I currently have a H100i installed and I have found that push/pull is a bit of a squeeze which for a 27mm thick rad, is a bit of a shame. Yes most rads are 25mm but some, such as the Kelvin S36 which I may be upgrading too in a huge overhaul later this year *fingers crossed*, are thicker at 30+mm, which will remove the possibilities of push/pull configurations. I feel that the case could be 5-10mm taller or have the top panel have fan space incorporated into the extra bulk that it provides by having the filter flush with the top and magnetic which would leave enough room for fans on top of the case while not protruding.

---

Conclusion
This is a great case for pretty much every need out of a custom PC and especially for its price. It was one of the best PC related purchases I have ever made and I feel that unless it breaks, I wont be needing a new PC case for quite a while, I can easily see myself with this case in 5 years time. The only reason I would upgrade is if something new really catches my eye or a Silverstone TJ07 comes up for sale for cheap.

Logitech G320 Daedalus Prime

Logitech International S.A. is a Swiss global provider of personal computer and tablets accessories. The company develops and markets products like peripheral devices for PCs, including keyboards, mice, trackballs, microphones, game controllers and webcams. Logitech also makes home and computer speakers, headphones, wireless audio devices, as well as audio devices for MP3 players and mobile phones. More recently, the company has begun making keyboards and covers for tablets.

---

Mouse Specs

- 6 programmable buttons
- On-the-fly adjustable 240-4000 DPI settings
- Logitech's "Delta Zero" technology (a combination of lens design, illumination geometry and algorithms)
- Lightweight design
- Low-friction feet (250km lifespan)
- 20 million high-speed clicks buttons (something like 10h/day for 2 years)
- Metal spring left/right button tensioning system
- 1 millisecond report (1000hz on USB 2.0, 16 bits/axis)
- Max. acceleration: >20G
- Weight (mouse + cable): 4.48 ounces / 127 grams
- Weight (mouse only): 3.07 ounces / 87 grams
- Length : 4.53 inches / 115 mm
- Width : 2.56 inches / 65 mm
- Height : 1.46 inches / 37 mm

---

Personal Review
I bought this mouse as part of a Black Friday deal, so the price we relatively cheap. I was in need of a new mouse and this one caught my eye. It had very good looks for the price and the features weren't all that bad either. I was kind of skeptical about buying it as it's branded as a MOBA mouse. After using it for a few months, I seriously have no idea why. It's just a regular mouse with silly marketing names to attract buyers who play certain games. But living with it over the last few months has been all round good fun, the mouse is lightweight with great tracking, the optical sensor used is pretty decent. I've played a lot of FPS games with it and had no troubles at all. It has the feel of a high end mouse but the price tag that is cheap and affordable. There are better alternatives out there, but when you consider the price difference, it's going to be hard to justify the extra cost in my opinion.

---

Logitech G Software

Logitech G Software is a piece of software that allows you to change settings on certain devices and change LED settings on certain devices. It is a dream to use with a wonderful UI.

---

Pictures

---

Conclusion

For the price, this mouse is an absolute steal, I'd recommend it to anyone within a certain budget as a must buy. It's got good aesthetics with good features usually found on higher end mice. I cannot fault it really. I've owned many other mice in the past from both ends of the pricing scale, and I'd call this a high end mouse due to the features and the wonderful software provided.